Bullerby farming is perhaps a naive dream, but industrial agriculture is a nightmare
Let us call the bluff of industrial agriculture.
Food & Water
Africa’s Greater Horn region is facing a looming polycrisis fueled by conflict, prices, climate and disease
The impacts of a strengthening El Niño and the war in Iran highlight in the Greater Horn of Africa, an area already beset by prolonged crisis and conflict, factors that are combining with others to potentially create a major, multicountry polycrisis.
Uganda’s peasant movements push back against harmful pesticides with agroecology
While Europe has banned hazardous pesticides, the same chemicals are exported to African countries such as Uganda, where farmers often apply them with minimal protection and without legal recourse. ESAFF Uganda and its partners are challenging the EU and demanding change.
Do organic farms use pesticides? How organic and conventional farming differ
Understanding how food is produced can help consumers make choices that support healthier soil, water, pollinators, and communities.
To protect its drinking water, this city has to appeal to the oil regulators that put it at risk
Oklahoma restricts oil field wastewater injection within a half-mile of public water wells to protect against pollution. Regulators have let companies do it anyway. Officials are taking on the oil industry by calling for additional protections against oil field wastewater injection.
The consumer power myth: Why it’s time to de-commodify food
The impression that we can eat what we want fits neatly with a neoliberal story that treats capitalism as democratic, where people “vote with their wallets”. But this is an illusion. Rather than putting our faith in green consumerism to rebuild food systems, we should strive to de‑commodify food.
The restoration of farms and farmers: Why Denmark is rethinking industrial agriculture
Farmer organisations should stop selling agriculture as just another industry and instead reclaim it as a mission rooted in land stewardship and care for animals and ecosystems. But with many farmers locked into debt and infrastructure that bind them to the current model, meaningful change can’t rest on farmers alone, the responsibility rests with society at large.
For 6,000 years humanity controlled water. Climate change is changing the equation
For 6,000 years, human societies have sought to control water through ever-larger infrastructure. As climate change brings more extreme floods, droughts and heatwaves, a growing number of cities are exploring a different path: adapting to water’s rhythms rather than trying to dominate them.
As global shocks mount, a new report calls for resilient, self-reliant food systems
Resilient, self-reliant food systems. A new IPES-Food report says they’re key to addressing food price volatility amid rising geopolitical tensions.
Four ways to build a food system that can withstand collapse
Rising energy and fertiliser prices linked to the conflict in the Middle East are increasing the risk of global food insecurity, prompting renewed questions about how to strengthen food security and reduce dependence on fragile global supply chains.
Small farms should stop trying to compete and start changing the food system
Small farms rarely make a decent living in commodity markets. It’s time to stop chasing scale and start building resilient, relationship-based food systems instead.
The architect making America’s food system legible
Architect and farmer Caitlin Taylor says communities need regional infrastructure for food security. As global agribusiness corporations contribute to ecological degradation and threaten the viability of local farms, she’s working to build a different system.
